Welcome to the Georgia WWI Commission

"To Honor, Educate and Commemorate"

Article provided by The University of Georgia

Editor's Note: This is the first story in a new series, called Georgia Groundbreakers, which celebrates innovative and visionary faculty, students, alumni and leaders throughout the history of the University of Georgia — and their profound, enduring impact on our state, our nation and the world.

By Sara Freeland

It began with a simple idea from a University of Georgia professor — sell poppy flowers to raise money on behalf of soldiers killed and injured in World War I.

Now, nearly 100 years and billions of dollars later, the poppy has become the international symbol of remembrance and support for all military veterans, thanks to the tireless efforts of Moina Belle Michael, affectionately known today as "The Poppy Lady."

"During her lifetime, if you adjust for inflation, poppy sales raised $3 billion worldwide, most of which went directly to veterans," said Tom Michael, a great nephew of Moina Michael, who died in 1944. "She championed the poppy as a permanent symbol and reminder of our collective obligation to support our veterans and their families And through all the poppy sales around the world, her legacy of helping veterans lives on."

Moina Michael, an education professor from the small Georgia town of Good Hope, was in Germany on the final leg of a European vacation when World War I unexpectedly broke out in 1914 — forcing her to flee to Italy to find a ship that would carry her home.

Moina Michael poses with the Poppy Lady Doll, a replica of her, that won a national doll competition held by the Federation Woman's Club in 1932. Michael retired from UGA in 1938 after having worked in education for 54 years.

After a harrowing 16-day trip through mine-infested waters and an ocean patrolled by enemy submarines, she returned to the relative quiet of her Athens, Georgia, home — but did not find peace. The nation was fixated on the war, and Michael did everything she could to bring comfort to soldiers awaiting deployment.

She made sure soldiers were adopted by local families. She also set up a campaign for the families to write the soldiers while they were overseas.

"How busy everyone was kept back in those early days responding to and arousing others to respond to the superhuman struggles to win the war," Michael wrote in her autobiography. "I anguished for some power by which our boys might be saved from gas, bombs [and] shrapnel."

During the war, Michael volunteered with the National YMCA. It was while she was working for the war effort in New York that she was struck by a sudden inspiration.

A young soldier left a copy of Ladies Home Journal on her desk with a marked page containing Lt. Col. John McCrae's famous poem "In Flanders Fields," about the war's devastation.

"The last verse transfixed me," she wrote. "'To you from failing hands we throw the Torch; be yours to hold ir high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.'"

On Nov. 9, 1918 — two days before the armistice that ended World War I — she wrote her own reply to McCrae's poem — entitled "We Shall Keep the Faith" — and decided "always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance and emblem of 'keeping the faith with all who died.'"

She left her office and scoured local flower shops in search of silk poppies to share with businessmen, veterans and soldiers.

Moina Belle Michael planted poppies on what is now the UGA Health Sciences Campus.

After the war, Athens and the University of Georgia became a hub for veteran rehabilitation. Michael taught a class of disabled servicemen and every Monday attended Disabled American Veterans chapter meetings. She even planted poppies on what is now UGA's Health Sciences Campus.

She also launched a national letter-writing campaign encouraging others to adopt the poppy. The American Legion designated the red poppy as its official flower in 1920, and distribution of poppies became a Legion national program in 1924.

"The soldiers who made the poppies for sale in America were classified as unfit for any employment by the government because of their war injuries. So they couldn't be hired. But they could make these little poppies," said Tom Michael, who has donated historic materials about his great aunt Moina to UGA's Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Other countries quickly followed suit. Remembrance poppies have been worn in the U.K., Australia and Canada since 1921 and since 1922 in New Zealand.

In the United Kingdom, many don a red poppy on Remembrance Day — a holiday similar to Veterans Day, which also is observed on Nov. 11. There, the British Royal Legion distributes about 45 million remembrance poppies and raises about $64 million annually to assist retired or injured soldiers. The funds support recovery centers, dementia care, medical expenses and even household repairs for veterans.

In 2016, nearly 3.5 million American Legion Auxiliary poppies were distributed, raising $2.1 million for American veterans.

The U.S. Postal Service released a 3-cent stamp in 1948 featuring Michael.

Michael was even featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1948 — a red 3-cent stamp with her image, name and the title "Founder of Memorial Poppy."

Yet today, she is one of UGA's hidden treasures.

"Most people in Georgia don't know who she is," said Marie Mize, a library associate in the UGA School of Law and a member of the Moina Michael Poppy Project, a group that raises awareness for Michael and sells craft poppies to benefit veterans.

"I knew about her because my parents were both members of the American Legion. My father was a veteran and as a kid, I would go with my mom and we would sell poppies for the American Legion," Mize said. Members of her group crochet and cross-stitch poppies using plastic canvas and paper. They sell them online and at festivals.

"We've been working for three years now to buy an all-terrain wheelchair for a veteran (through the Independence Fund). That's $15,000. That's a lot of $3 and $5 poppies," Mize added.

With the centennial of the armistice approaching, there is renewed interest in remembering Michael and her unyielding dedication to soldiers.

In her hometown of Good Hope, there's a road named after Michael and a corresponding historical marker. Another historical marker denotes her birthplace. Good Hope changed its annual fall festival to the Poppy Festival to honor Michael. The festival features history displays, a bike ride, a Miss Poppy Pageant, and vendors selling items from handmade poppy crafts to poppy T-shirts.

And in downtown Athens, there's a plaque remembering the "poppy lady" across from UGA's historic Arch in the Broad Street median.

"The fact that she was able to accomplish what she did as a woman from Georgia in her day and age was truly remarkable," said James Cobb, B. Phinizy Spalding Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Georgia. "For many Americans, our intervention in World War I quickly became something to forget rather than celebrate. Her actions helped to reaffirm the strength of patriotic sentiment."

Dr. Lamar Veatch, GWWICC associate, represents the Commission at the Georgia American Legion Fall Conference held October 21, 2017 at the Sonesta Gwinnett Place Hotel. Dr. Veatch provided information on the Commission’s work in a display and in remarks to the conference.

Sylvania, GA Oct. 6, 2017

The Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, in cooperation with the Georgia Historical Society and VFW Post 7116, dedicated a historical marker in downtown Sylvania as a memorial to the many Georgia soldiers who died in the tragic sinking of the troop ship Otranto off the coast of Scotland. The dedication ceremony was held on the 99th anniversary of the sinking which occurred Oct. 6, 1918.

Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Library is pleased to sponsor a special WW1 centennial program - “A Question of Manhood: African Americans and WW1”. This explores the challenges and conflicts, the triumphs and successes of the African American soldiers before, during, and after the war. UGA Professor John Morrow will discuss his 2014 book Harlem’s Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and African American Quest for Equality.

This will take place on Monday, October 16, at 6:30pm, Emory University Rose Library, Teaching and Learning Studio 10th Floor. rose.library.emory.edu

Three lectures during October will highlight the centennial of U.S. involvement in World War I. Sponsored by the UGA Department of History and the UGA Willson Center for Humanities & Arts, the lectures will be held October 5, 19 and 26 respectively at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries at the University of Georgia. Admission is free and open to the public.

October 5Lynn Dumenil - "Modern American Women and World War I"She is the Robert Glass Cleland Professor of American History, Emerita at Occidental College. She is the author of The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s, Freemasonry and American Culture, 1880-1930, Through Women's Eyes: An American History (with Ellen Carol DuBois), and (with James Henretta and David Brody) America's History, 5th edition; and America: A Concise History. Dumenil's emphasis is cultural, political and social history of 20th century America.

October 19Chad Williams - "World War I, Black Soldiers and the Birth of the New Negro."He is associate professor of African and Afro-American studies at Brandeis University. He is the author of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era and co-editor, with Kidada E. Williams and Keisha N. Blain, of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence, published in 2016 by the University of Georgia Press.

October 26Richard Shawn Faulkner - "Mud, Blood, and Dysentery: The Doughboy's Life in Battle."He is retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is a supervisory professor of military history at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Faulkner is the author of Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I, published in 2017 by the University Press of Kansas, and The School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Forces, which won the 2013 Distinguished Book Award presented by the Society for Military History.

A new and enhanced exhibit commemorating soldiers from Berrien County lost in the tragic wreck of the troop ship Otranto is under development. The exhibit at the Old Berrien County Courthouse in Nashville is under the direction of the Berrien County Historical Society and is planned for a January 2018 opening. Below are the design sketches and supporting brochure.

Reproduced here with appreciation to and permission of the Saporta Report

In this column, members of Georgia Humanities and their colleagues take turns discussing Georgia’s history and culture, and other topics that matter. Through different voices, we hear different stories.

This week guest contributor TOM JACKSON, of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, looks at the many memorials to WWI soldiers in our state.

By Tom Jackson

Tom Jackson

The mission of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission (GWWICC) in remembering the Great War is not only to educate today’s citizens about this often-overlooked war but also to honor those who served and commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

With its 1921 Georgia State Memorial Book, Georgia became the first state to publish an official memorial book to those who died in World War I. But under the racial practices of the time, the book contained only the names of white personnel. Through the diligent research of retired state librarian Dr. Lamar Veatch, who works as an associate with the GWWICC, the names of hundreds of soldiers of African American, Native American, and other descent have been identified and added to the expanded version housed on the GWWICC website. As a result of this significant effort, today the names of some 1,300 Georgians are on the rolls as part of the national centennial program to find and record all such tributes to Americans who fought and died in World War I.

That same website also includes an online inventory, with photographs, of the war memorials and plaques located throughout the state — there is one in virtually every county seat. Some are elaborate; others are simple. Some have separate listings for “white” and “colored,” while others omit African Americans altogether. The GWWICC website will become a lasting legacy of these efforts as a part of the National Archives collection on the WWI Centennial.

Notable among the Georgia monuments are the many striking “Spirit of the American Doughboy” statues standing prominently across the state, among hundreds that were erected nationwide. Georgia has the original. All others are copies of the first by sculptor E. M. Viquesney that stands outside the courthouse in Nashville (in Berrien County). It honors the 60 Berrien residents who died in the war, including 28 who perished in the disastrous sinking of the troop ship Otranto off the coast of Scotland in 1918. The original bronze statue was ordered in August 1920, and when completed was displayed in Americus before touring on a national exhibition and finally being delivered to the Berrien County courthouse square in summer 1921. There it stood under a veil until late 1923 as local citizens worked to raise the remainder of the funds owed on it —a dedication ceremony was held once the debt was paid. A 1939 widening of the highway required moving the statue from the middle of the street to the courthouse grounds, where it stands today.

A copper copy of the original doughboy statue stands in Rees Park, in Americus, relocated from downtown Americus in 1947. An unusual but striking copy done in stone — the only known stone version — stands in front of the Morgan County Courthouse in downtown Madison. There are other versions across Georgia, generally in bronze or copper, in places like Trion (Chattooga County), Griffin (Spalding County), and Waycross (Ware County) — and more than 150 copies nationwide, mass-produced from the original statue in the 1920s and 1930s.

Georgia also is home to the grave of America’s “Known Soldier” of World War I. After the close of the war, Congress and President Warren G. Harding determined in 1922 to designate a known soldier killed in action as a representative of all who were lost in the war and to lie in Arlington Cemetery beside the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At random, the name of Private Charles Graves was chosen — an 18-year-old private from Rome, Georgia, killed in the Hindenburg Line and originally buried in France. It was to be a tremendous honor for young Graves, except his mother wanted him buried at home in the family plot at Antioch Cemetery outside Rome. The government acceded to Mrs. Graves’s wishes. Graves got his ceremony and a glorious homecoming parade through New York City, honoring him and all the soldiers, returning and fallen. But then instead of going to Arlington, his body was put on a train to Rome, where he was buried in accordance with his mother’s wishes, still designated as representative of all who died in the Great War.

Local citizens soon thought it not fitting for America’s “Known Soldier” to lie in a little church cemetery. After the death of his mother, they obtained the permission of Graves’s brother to move him to a more stately setting in Rome’s historic Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Others, thinking the mother’s wishes should be honored, sought a court injunction to stop the move. But the night before an injunction was to be issued, a group of men exhumed Graves’s body and moved him to Myrtle Hill in the Memorial Plaza, where he lies today. A dramatic renovation of the site in 2000 created a memorial plaza to all 34 young men from Floyd County who died in World War I, with the “Known Soldier,” Charles Graves, at its center.

Keep reading “Jamil’s Georgia” for more in this continuing series about World War I.

Tom Jackson serves as executive director of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission in his position as Heritage Communications Executive for the University System of Georgia.